Public Administration: Meaning, Characteristics, Nature & Scope

Introduction:

The historical evidence indicates that every society, sooner or later, has felt the need for an organized and well-ordered system of life. Therefore, the society concerned has established a suitable system and mechanism for the said purpose. Perhaps this paved the way for the emergence of public administration, and hence, this profession has an ancient origin.

Therefore, Administration as an activity is as old as Civilization itself. However, the system and mechanism of public administration have changed with the evolution and growth of civilization or according to societal needs over a period of time. However, it is Woodrow Wilson’s article “The Study of Administration”, published in 1887, which is considered as the beginning of this discipline as a subject of study.

It is observed that despite the enormity of the diversities of needs or political settings of the people around the world, public administration in a democratic, complex and fast-changing modern society has become imperative for the sustenance, progress and quality of life of all human beings. Further, the improvement of the operation of governmental administration is to be more than a matter of mere chance, and it must arise from the systematic study of public administration (Millett: 1956).

Therefore, the scientific study concerned with all those public affairs which have not been considered as personal and private by the people of a particular culture or society at a particular point in time and in a definite political setting is termed as the discipline of public administration. Hence, the study of Public Administration is inevitable.

Meaning of Administration:

The public administration is one dimension of a more generic term, “administration”. The English word “administer” is derived from the combination of two Latin words “ad” plus “ministiare”, which means to serve, to direct, to control, to govern, to run, to oversee, and to manage affairs.

E N Gladden defined it as “to care for or to look after people, to manage affairs” and defined it as “determined action taken in pursuit of common purpose”. It is the management of affairs of an organization, the functions of a political state in discharging its responsibilities, and the body of people who administer an organization (Collins English Dictionary: 2009).

Pfiffner and Presthees rightly defined it as “the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends.” The organisation generally means the “combination of the necessary human beings and physical resources in a systematic and effective co-relation to accomplish some common desired objectives‟, and management refers to „the guidance and directions given to an organisation to accomplish predetermined desired objective/goal‟.

Administration is the management or proper ordering of the collective activities of human beings, and as most human activities are collective and cooperative, administration is a general process discernible in every group activity. It is observed that “Where men live together, they have to work together and where they work together, they have to be so put to their jobs and to each other as to create a harmonious combination of men and material that is called administration”. (A. R. Tyagi: 2001). It (administration) is a cooperative human effort towards achieving some common goals. In simple words, it is a cooperative activity undertaken jointly by a group of people (two or more than two persons) for a common purpose and, therefore, a goal-oriented one.

Dwight Waldo states: “Administration is a type of cooperative human effort that has a high degree of rationality”. It is “an endeavour to maximize one’s goal or achievement by rationally relating means to ends”. For example, for rolling a stone to a fixed place, persons are put to stone in such a relationship as to maximize their efforts in a certain given direction. This arrangement of persons in relation to the stone, i.e., the job, is called „organization‟, and the act of arranging the relationship is called „management‟. These two factors, namely organization and management, are special features of administration activity. Keith Henderson defined the administration in this sense and defined it as: “Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carrying out of purposes”.

The administration is a universal process and is performed in every kind of organization, i.e., public or private, business or charitable, sovereign or dependent, established under diverse institutional settings. The people, actions and interactions are the three components associated with the term administration. In other words, without these, there cannot be any administration.

Definitions of Administration:

The term “administration” is defined in a number of ways:

E N Gladden states: “Administration is a long and slightly pompous word, but it has a humble meaning, for it means to care for or to look after people, to manage affairs” and defined it as “determined action taken in pursuit of conscious purpose”. Pfiffner elaborated it further and defined the administration “as the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends”.

Similarly, Nigro put it as: “Administration is the organization and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose”. George E Berkley also defined it in almost a similar fashion. He states: “Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in working toward common goals”.

John A. Vieg has given an explicit definition, and according to him, “Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of conscious purpose. It consists in the systematized ordering of affairs and calculated use of resources, aimed at making those things happen which we want to happen and simultaneously preventing development that fail to square with our intentions. It is the marshalling of available labour and materials in order to gain that which is desired at the lowest cost in energy, time and money”.

F. M Marx also states that “Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of conscious purpose. It is the systematized ordering of affairs, and calculated use of resources aimed at making those things happen that we want to happen and forestalling everything to the contrary”. Luther Gulick has defined it very precisely and stated that “Administration has to do getting things done, with the accomplishment of defined objectives”.

L D White termed the administration as an art. He considered that “The art of administration is the direction, coordination and control of many persons to achieve some purpose or objective”. Defining differently, Herbert Simon says, “……Administration is the activities of groups cooperating to accomplish common goals”.

Meaning of Public Administration:

Public administration is a term used for a specific type of administration carried out in certain specific institutional settings, say political, and usually taken as distinct from private administration. It is a specialized kind of administration which operates in a specific ecological setting and is considered as a device to carry out policy decisions of the State. The focus in public administration is on public bureaucracy and public policies, which assign a formal status to mean as government administration, the government in action.

Millett states: “Public Administration is a vital part of the whole process of government, the part which provides the machinery whereby political decisions bring about every action”. Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as the application of a policy of a state through its government. Thus, it is that part of administration that performs the administrative activities of the government. Hence, the meaning of the term “public‟ in „public administration‟ requires clear understanding in order to understand the meaning of the term „public administration‟.

Nicholas Henry has identified three dimensions (agency, interest and access) for differentiating „publicness‟ and „privateness‟. He believes that the term „public‟ in public administration means a government agency entrusted with social responsibility, and these public agencies are „outrageously accessible‟ to the people at large. But, Henry himself is of the opinion that these „are in no way mutually exclusive‟ but rather „mutually reinforcing‟. The definitions of public administration based on three dimensions not only clarify „public‟ in public administration but demonstrate „publicness, as well. Hence, public administration is one of the species of the generic term administration and is also unique because of its agency, interest and access.

Definition of Public Administration:

Public administration is an aspect of a more generic concept of administration. It has been defined by scholars in two different ways. The first category of scholars is of those who define it in a traditional and narrower sense. The second category is of those who defined it in a modern and wider sense.

Traditional Definitions of Public Administration:

Woodrow Wilson states that “Public administration is the detailed and systematic execution of the law. Every particular application of the law is an act of administration. Every particular application of the law is an act of administration”. He also observed that “Administration is the most obvious part of government; it is a government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government (Woodrow Wilson).

Herbert A. Simon, D.W Smithburg and V. A. Thompson also consider that it is the executive who performs the functions of public administration. In their words, “By public administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of the national, state and local governments, government corporations and certain other agencies of a specialized character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the government and nongovernmental administration”.

Percy Mc Queen defined that “Public Administration is related to the operations of government whether local or central”. J. S. Hodgson states: “Public administration comprises all activities of persons or groups in governments or their agencies, whether these organizations are international, regional or local in their scope, to fulfill the purposes of these governments or agencies”.

Similarly, Luther Gulick also stated that “Public administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government, and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch, where the work of government is done, though there are obviously administrative problems also in connection with the legislative and judicial branches”.

Similarly, F. M. Marx states that “Public administration has come to signify primarily the organization, personnel, practices and procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of government”. James W. Davis defined “Public Administration can be best identified with the executive branch of the government”.

W F Willoughby states that “In its broadest sense, it (public administration) denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, regardless of the particular branch of government concerned. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the administrative branch only”. Corson and Harris also defined it in almost a similar sense and according to them, “Public administration……. is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized”. E. N. Gladden observes that “Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government”.

L. D White considers that “Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy”. Dwight Waldo states, “Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of State. The process of public administration consists of the actions involved in affecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus continuously active, „business‟ part of government, concerned with carrying out the law as made by legislative bodies(or other authoritative agents) and interpreted by courts, through the process of organisation and management. The field of study- putatively a science or discipline- of public administration focuses upon public administration as a process”. H. Walker states: “The work which the government does to give effect to law is called Public administration”.

Modern Definitions of Public Administration:

M. E. Dimock & G. O. Dimock state that “ Like the study of politics, the study of public administration is a study of what people want through government and how they go about getting it. In addition, administration also emphasizes the methods and procedures of management. Thus public administration is as much concerned with what government does as it is how it does it. Public administration is the area of study and practice where law and policy recommended are carried out”. James W. Fesler has further extended the scope of the public administration and defined that “…Public administration is policy execution and also policy formulation, public administration is bureaucracy and public administration is public”.

Nicholas Henry opines that “Public Administration is a broad-ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice; its purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its relationship with the society, it governs, as well as to encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and to institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the deeper human requisites of the citizenry”.

Rosenbloom states: “Public administration does involve, it is concerned with politics and policy making, it tends to be concentrated in the executive branch of the government. It does differ from private administration, and it is concerned with implementing law. Public administration is the use of managerial, legal and political theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or some segments of it”.

F. A. Nigro and L. G. Nigro described it in a broader sense as: “Public Administration:

1. is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;
2. covers all three branches- executive, legislative and judicial —and their interrelationships;
3. has an important role in the formulation of policy and is thus a part of the political process;
4. is different in significant ways from private administration and
5. is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community”.

Characteristics of Public Administration:

1. The public administration operates through a tool known as bureaucracy, which is a professional and non-political institution and discharges the responsibilities as per the standard determined for the purpose.
2. The democratic state and its political system decide its purposes and scope and direct its public administrative system and the bureaucracy, keeping in view the political, constitutional, social, economic and cultural context of the society concerned. It is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
3. Public administration normally refers to the executive branch of the government, but its meaning cannot always be restricted to the executive branch only as there has been overlapping and interdependence, especially to achieve the objectives of the state. Hence, public administration has become a complex system of managing public affairs.
4. Traditionally, the policy execution role has been assigned to public administration, but it has also been performing a role in the policy-making domain.
5. Public and private administration are considered distinct from each other, especially in terms of the process adopted and objectives pursued, but both of them share their efforts, innovations, strategies, and resources in order to fulfil the larger objective of the betterment of mankind. The emphasis has always been on public good.
6. It is interdisciplinary in theory and practical in its application. Hence, the knowledge of all branches of social sciences is utilized to the possible extent to solve practical problems confronted by society.
7. It is a dynamic process and will be alive as long as civilization itself.
8. It is art and science.
9. It has a political character and functions in a specific political setting.
10. It seeks the assistance and cooperation of and is actively associated with various groups and agencies to provide services and perform functions assigned to it.

Nature of Public Administration:

What constitutes the nature of a discipline like public administration? The answer lies in its properties or characteristics. In simple words, the properties of the issues in the domain of the discipline determine its nature. Further, the Public Administration is a process, and therefore, the series of activities undertaken determine the nature of the process of public administration. Thus, the nature of Public Administration means the type of activities and functions performed by it. The scholars put up two divergent views (integral and managerial) regarding the nature of public administration.

Integral View or Integral School of Public Administration:

The integral view considers that every activity manual, clerical and managerial performed in an organisation to accomplish its goal is administrative activity. It means all acts performed by the lowest level official, say attendant and up to the head of the department, say the secretary, are the acts of administration. In other words, the sum total of all activities performed by the workers, employees, officials, managers and executives positioned at different hierarchical levels of organisation in order to accomplish the objectives and goals are considered as the activities of administration by this view. Woodrow Wilson, L. D. White, Marshall E. Dimock, John Pfiffner and Percy McQueen advocated this view.

L D White states: “Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by competent authority”. Woodrow Wilson considers it “is detailed and systematic application of law”. Pfiffner observes: “Public Administration consist of doing the work of the government whether it be running an X- ray machine in a health laboratory or coining money in the mint. Public Administration consist of getting the work done by coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their tasks”.

Percy McQueen says, “Public Administration is administration related to the operation of government whether central or local”. Thus, the supporters of the view believe that public administration, in a comprehensive sense, includes all those activities which fall in the domain of the government and even if those are legislative, executive and judicial in nature.

Managerial View or Managerial School of Public Administration:

Luther Gulick, Merson, Herbert Simon, and Henry Fayol are the supporters of this view. They emphasize that public administration is concerned only with such activities of the executive branch of the government, which involves organizational and managerial activities. The managerial view of administration means the managerial activities of people who are involved in planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling constitute Public Administration. The view believes in getting things done instead of doing things. It means the manual, clerical and technical non-managerial acts are not included in public administration as per this view.

Luther Gulick states: “Public Administration is that branch of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of government is done, though there are obviously problems in connection with the legislative and judicial branches.”

Merson states: “The administrator gets things done, and just as the science of politics is an enquiry into the best means whereby the will of the people may be organized for the formulation of policy so the science of Public Administration is an enquiry as to how policies may best be carried into operation.”

Herbert Simon states, “By public administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of the national, state and local government.”

Thus, both views are important. The exact meaning of administration would depend on the context in which the term is used. Dimock, Dimock and Koeing rightly observed that “as a study, Public Administration examines every aspect of Government efforts to discharge the laws and to give effect to the public.

Modern Comprehensive View of Public Administration:

There have been tremendous changes in the role of public administration and government in the modern world. It has incorporated so many activities and agencies to suit the needs of modern society. Therefore, the nature of public administration cannot be described as per the traditional integral and managerial views. As already stated F. A. Nigro and L. G. Nigro have made an attempt to describe the public administration in a comprehensive manner. They state “Public Administration”:

1. is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;
2. covers all three branches- executive, legislative and judicial and their interrelationships;
3. has an important role in the formulation of policy and is thus a part of the political process;
4. is different in significant ways from private administration and
5. is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community

Scope of Public Administration:

The scope of Public administration is discussed under two headings as under:

1. Public Administration as a State activity
2. Public Administration as a Discipline

Public Administrative as a State Activity:

The Scope stands for the area of operation of a discipline. The scope of public administration activities in a country normally corresponds to state activities. Obviously, the democratic state deals with a vast range of issues and activities under its jurisdiction endowed and entrusted by the constitution and welfare philosophy. Therefore, in the traditional sense, Public Administration is about the State „in action‟ and „in interaction‟. It regulates public life, extends welfare and social security, delivers different kinds of services, and protects citizens against natural and human-designed threats. In addition to this, the management of various government-owned enterprises and regulating private industrial, business and non-business entities. Thus, Public Administration in a modern State covers every area and activity within the ambit of public policy, and that makes the scope very wide and open.

The traditional writers like F.M. Marx and, Luther Gulick Smithburg, and Thomson restricted the scope of public administration to the executive branch of the government only. F.M Marx states: “Public Administration covers primarily the organization, personnel practices and procedures essential for the effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of the government“. Smithburg and Thomson state: “By public administration is meant in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of the national, state and local governments”.

However, the scholars like Nigro and Nigro consider that “all three branches of government are part of the study and practice of public administration”. In other words, the activities of all the three branches of the government-legislature, executive and judiciary- that is whole government is the public administration. The modern writers consider that civil servants nowadays not only execute policies or in delivering services but also activities engaged in policy information and performing quasi judicial functions. Similarly, the administration actions of the executive have been influenced by the policies (laws) made by the legislature, and the judiciary frequently restricts or guides the executive as per the constitutional provisions or spirit of natural justice and democracy.

Public Administration as a Discipline:

Public Administration is a subject of study, and every issue, institution, and process that is concerned with the people’s affairs and requires governance in order to have order in society is under its domain. The scholars like Henry Fayol, Gulick, P. McQueen, Willoughby, Pfiffner, Walker, F.M. Marx, Nigro and others deliberated on the scope of Public Administration as a discipline.

The literature on the subject indicates that, according to Henry Fayol, Planning, Organizing, Commanding, Coordinating, and Controlling are the five functional elements which convey the scope of administration. But, Luther Gulick has modified this domain of activities perceived by Fayol to be in administration and suggested these as: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting which are popularly abbreviated as POSDCORB. Percy McQueen has attempted to define the scope in much simpler manner and stated that men, material and methods constitute the scope of administration. Similarly, Willoughby divided the scope of public administration into five categories namely: general administration, (consisting of the functions of direction, supervision, and control); organization, personnel, material, and supply and finance.

POSDRCORB View of Public Administration:

Gulick is of the opinion that the POSDCORB activities are common to all organizations, and there are common problems of management in all organizations, although they may engage in different types of work. Planning means working out in broad outline the things to be done the methods to be adopted to accomplish the purpose. Organisation means the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which the work is sub-divided, arranged, defined and coordinated. Staffing means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their conditions of work. Directing means making decisions and issuing orders and instructions. Coordinating: It means inter-relating the work of various divisions, sections and other parts of the organization. Reporting means informing the superiors within the agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is going on. Budgeting means fiscal planning, control and accounting. POSDCORB gives unity, certainty and definiteness and makes the study more systematic.

The POSDCORB view propounded by Luther Gulick was criticized on the grounds that POSDCORB activities were neither the whole of the administration nor even the most important part of it. The organizations (public or private) or administrative agencies are faced with different kinds of administrative problems and those are specific to the nature of functions or jobs performed by them or the services carried on or delivered by them. In a simple sense, it takes into consideration only the common technologies of the administration and ignores the study of the subject matter in which an organization or an agency is engaged in or concerned with. Moreover, it does not take into consideration the process and activities related to the formulation and implementation of policy. It is also opined that the POSDCORB has defined the scope of public administration inwardly and too conscious of the top management.

The Subject Matter View of Public Administration:

The functions of the Public administration cannot be carried out on the basis of common techniques expressed in the POSDCORB view. The performance of all these activities requires an in-depth understanding of the subject matter and knowledge of certain specialized techniques. For example, discharging a function to protect the country’s border of the country is entirely different from imparting elementary education to the children. Therefore, the systematic understanding of a field of administration is also highly important and in no way lesser than the common POSDCORB techniques utilized in the process of administration of an organization. Therefore, Lewis Meriam States that “Public Administration is an instrument with two bodies like a pair of scissors. One blade may be the knowledge of the field covered by POSDCORB; the other blade is the knowledge of the subject matter in which these techniques are applied. Both blades must be good to make an effective tool”.

In India, the Scope of Public Administration is very wide and comprehensive. The democratic nature, welfare state policy and myriad problems facing the nation make the intervention of the state inevitable in all walks of life. Moreover, there is so much interaction and interdependence between the three organs of Government that the scope of public administration cannot be restricted to the executive branch only. It must necessarily study and cover all the organs of Government V12 Legislature, executive and judiciary.

Summing up the scope of public administration, Dimock and Koeing opined that “ As a study, public administration examines every aspect of government’s efforts to discharge the laws and to give effect to public policy; as a process, it is all the steps taken between the time an enforcement agency assumes jurisdiction and the last break is placed (but also includes that agency‟s participation, if any, in the formulation of the programme in the first place); and as a vocation, it is organizing and directing the activities of others in a public agency”.

Read More in: Introduction to Public Administration

1. Public Administration: Meaning, Characteristics, Nature & Scope
2. Importance of Public Administration
3. History and Development of Public Administration
4. New Public Administration (NPA): Concept & Background
5. Government to Governance: A Paradigm Shift
6. Ethics in Public Administration: Meaning, Importance & Determinants
7. Public Accountability: Meaning, Concept & Explanation
8. Hierarchy in Public Administration: Meaning, Features, Merits & Demerits
9. Unity of Command in Public Administration: Meaning, Concept, Merits & Demerits
10. Henri Fayol’s Principles of Management
11. Difference Between Unity of Command and Unity of Direction
12. Difference Between Unity of Command and Chain of Command
13. Span of Control: Concept, Types & Factors